About Rafael de Cárdenas

Once described as “a renaissance man with an intrinsic sense for color”, Rafael de Cardenas is an architect and designer who, in his own bold and eclectic way, has redefined the modern interior. At the helm of his own design firm, Architecture at Large, since 2006, de Cardenas has designed commercial spaces for Nike, Cappellini, HBO, and Baccarat, developed his own lines of furniture and footwear, and decorated homes of the rich and famous in Europe and New York. His aesthetic is characteristically vibrant and geometric, evoking kitsch and Art Deco with its saturated colors and zigzagging lines. “I like to bend the rules of traditional architecture to produce moods and elicit emotional response,” he says. A staunch defender of ornament for ornament’s sake, de Cardenas drew early inspiration from Italian designers like Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini, whom he has described as being “weird for the sake of being weird.”